Cataclysm -A Gravity Falls Fan Fic

Chapter Twelve- The Case of the Missing Mabel

Dipper yawns, and sleepily opens one eye.
"Strange...the room smells nicer than usual this morning," he mumbles.
Then he realizes he can't recall going home last night.
He sits up with a start, and glances around.
Wendy is sleeping on her bed, on top of the covers, and he is sitting in a bean bag chair. He checks the time on a clock; it's 9:30 in the morning.
"Well then. This is awkward," he yawns, trying to stand up, but his legs are glued to the bag.
"Just great! Mabel's probably worried. And if I don't get there soon, Stan will never let me do a movie night with Wendy ever again,"
Finally, the fabric separates from his skin, and he topples over onto the floor with a grunt.
Wendy stirs, but doesn't wake up.
Dipper breathes a sigh of relief, stands up, and quietly hobbles out of her room.
Dipper is looking from left to right, and tries to remember which door led out, when he comes face to face...or, more like face to waist, with a giant, angry red-head.
"M-M-Mr. Corduroy," Dipper gulps, glancing up at him in horror.
"THEIF!" Mr. Corduroy yells at the top of his lungs, and reaches for the ax strapped to his back.
"AHHH!" Dipper yells, running in between his legs.
Dipper swings open a door and hopes it's the way out. For once, Dipper is lucky, and it is.
"I WILL FIND YOU!" Mr. Corduroy yells, waving his fist after him as he dashes out the door.

     "Well...great to know...I'm on good terms with her dad," Dipper gasps sarcastically, slowing down a bit to catch his breath once he sees the Mystery Shack in the distance. "Maybe I'll get there before Stan wakes up and notices I'm gone,"
He slowly opens the door, and peeks in. No Stan.
Dipper breathes a sigh of relief and, after quietly closing the door behind him, dashes up the stairs.
Dipper tip-toes over to Mabel's bed to see if she's sleeping.
Dipper sees Mabel is sleeping, covers pulled up over her face, so he lays down in his own bed.
Approximately 10 minutes later, Stan calls them down for breakfast.
Dipper stumbles over to Mabel and shakes her.
"Mabel...time to--!" Dipper's words are caught in his throat when he sees a mannequin head with a brown wig in place of Mabel.
"What the...!?" Dipper mumbles, eyes widening. "Mabel, is this some kind of joke?"
Dipper looks under her bed and in their closet, but there's no sign of Mabel anywhere. Dipper rolls his eyes and walks downstairs to investigate further.
"She's probably hiding somewhere, waiting to pop out at me," Dipper mumbles.
But in the back of his mind, something is telling him something much greater is wrong.

     "Stan, have you seen Mabel!?" Dipper asks, starting to get worried, after he's searched everywhere downstairs.
"No. What, she's not upstairs?" Stan asks.
"I...I think she's just hiding or something," Dipper mumbles. "She has to be," Then he runs upstairs to recheck.
"Mabel, if this is a prank, you've gone too far!" Dipper calls out after he's entered the room.
Dipper searches her bed again, and sighs when he finds no trace of her.
But then he notices something on the floor under their window.
A few drops of dried blood.
Dipper hesitantly reaches up and lightly touches the triangle window; it immediately falls onto the ground with a clatter.
Someone's tampered with it.
Dipper gasps, and tries to let it all sink in.
"Someone...someone must've took Mabel and...and left through this window!" Dipper breathes, worriedly. "Wait...Mabel could've crawled out of the window herself. She's...she's probably just hiding somewhere...outside!" Dipper reasons with himself, trying to look at the more logical options. "But...but there's blood on the ground. Nope, this is too suspicious. Something's definitely wrong,"
Dipper looks out the window again, and on the window sill, there is a fallen strand of blonde hair.
Dipper takes the strand and places it in a little plastic baggy for evidence, crams it into his pocket, and proceeds to climb out of the window, searching for more clues about where Mabel could've gone.
Once he realizes how high up the window is, he climbs back inside and grabs Mabel's grappling hook which was beside her bed.
"She never leaves her grappling hook unattended," Dipper mutters.
He uses the grappling hook to lower himself down to the ground.
"Hmm...there are no footprints or anything," Dipper sighs, squinting his eyes. "I may have to give this bag of evidence to the F.B.I., and maybe they can trace the strand of hair back to who--"
"Uh...hey, Dipper?" Dipper hears a voice from behind. He turns around with a grave expression.
"Pacifica...?" Dipper states, surprised. "What are you doing here?"
"Well, I was just wondering if we could hang out or something. You seemed kinda frazzled last time we met up," Pacifica says, but then notices his worried expression. "And...you apparently are frazzled now as well. What's wrong this time!?"
"Mabel's missing," Dipper sighs, getting to the point.
"What!? Did she run off?" Pacifica asks.
"No," he sighs. "I...I think she was kidnapped!"
"I would usually say you're crazy, but with the way things have been going lately, I wouldn't be surprised," Pacifica says, plainly. "So, why do you think that?"
"The window was tampered with, there were drops of dried blood on the ground below the window, and there was a strand of blonde hair on the window sill," Dipper recollects, pacing back and forth like a detective. "That's it. I'm taking the evidence to the police,"
"Um...wait up!" Pacifica says, following him as he runs off to the police station.

     "Hmm," a police officer mumbles, lazily glancing at the packet of evidence Dipper is holding up. "Has she been missing for 24 hours?"
"No, but...but, I mean, clearly something is wrong here! Did you hear what I said about the blood and stuff!?" Dipper explains, annoyed that the officer isn't taking it seriously.
"Sorry, but legally, we can't do anything until she's been missing for 24 hours," the officer says. "Check back with us tomorrow,"
"What!? You guys are ridiculous!" Dipper yells angrily.
The officer shrugs and shoves a huge piece of cake into his mouth.
Dipper grimaces, and stomps out the door, leaving the premise.
"Well that's a bummer," Pacifica sighs. "I could probably pay those idiots to help us out,"
"No, it's fine," Dipper sighs. "Even if you paid them they wouldn't put their all into finding her, as you can tell. I'll...I'll just have to take care of this myself,"

     The silence woke Mabel.
She tries to sit up with a start, but realizes she can't move.
She tries to yell, but realizes she can't speak.
"Be quiet, calm down! It's gonna be A-OK, hon!" someone laughs from the darkness. "Well, for me anyway!"

(Note: Hey guyssssss!!! 😄👋🏻💕 Okay, I have a perfectly logical explanation as to why it's taken so long to publish this baby. First off, after we moved in to our new house, we didn't have any internet for the longest time. Now we have Internet, but it SUCKS, because my mom's phone is the hotspot, so we can only use it when she's on it. So yes...life's been hard. 😰😭 And I've missed you guys!!! I finally got to take a break from unpacking boxes and got to go to a coffee shop, and...the coffee shop has wifi!! So I can finally publish this!! Yaaaaaay!!😄👏🏻 I'm so sorry you guys have had to wait for so long. I can't say enough how much I appreciate your guys's patience and support throughout my crazy life and the publishing of this book. I've got HUGE plans for this book; Dipper and Mabel are in for an adventure possibly more crazy than the last one! So, just buckle up as the ride begins to take off and a lotta stuff's about to go down!! Love you all, baiiiiiii!! -Mabelwaffles127)